Google launches new browser 'Chrome'

Google are about to release a public beta of their new Chrome browser to over 100 countries tomorrow. The announcement came out of nowhere, thanks to a leaked email. You get the impression that Google wanted to keep things quiet for a little longer, especially since they haven't finished the OS X and Linux versions yet. You might be asking yourself if we really need another browser, unless you're in that 24% of Internet Explorer 6 users, in which case you probably weren't aware that there are other browsers...

The internet as a whole has become far more complicated than it was eight years ago. Users can now log onto any computer, anywhere in the world and access their documents, spreadsheets and calendars via Open Office or Google docs. Works emails can be checked on the go via any web browser. Flash websites are becoming more and more desktop applications. What does this increased web functionality mean for older generation browsers? Can they keep up? Google seems to think 'No'.

To understand why Google's Chrome has a place in the bloated browser market, you need to understand how a browser works. Bear with me, it's boring.

Ordinary browsers work a little bit like the queue at the Post Office; they handle processes one at a time. Usually very slowly. Browsers use a scripting language called Javascript to handle dynamic content and rich media. As it's loading, the webpage will call javascript if needed. The script does it's job then hands control back to the next part of the chain. This is usually the HTML but could be another javascript or a plugin. This method of doing things is very old school and can leave a browser prone to crashes as your computer's memory fills up. Yes. Firefox 2. I'm looking at you.

Google's approach to browser design has been a little more like Apples when they started to design OS X. Instead of each browser process moving along the same single thread, processes are handled as multiple threads. In a normal browser, even if you have multiple tabs open, the browser still handles each process one at a time. In Google's Chrome browser, the Process Manager isolates everything that's going on and makes sure that each process has access to everything it needs at the same time. This is important if you want to run two or three online apps in the same tabbed browser window.

Now, with this multi-process architecture running behind the scenes, your browser won't crash because of some complex javascript issue or badly designed webpage. Instead the tab that's handling the application will crash, leaving the rest of the browser (and your other tabs) still running. That's the sales blurb anyway.

All this sounds very Apple, which isn't too suprising when you consider that Google have opted to use WebKit as Chrome's framework. WebKit is a light, open source framework developed for Apple's Safari browser. Google are touting the standards compliancy, speed and security of Chrome; all standard marketing spiel. But It's the Operating System approach to browser production that's got me excited, which is a ridiculous thing to say I know but I have my work head on right now: With the release of Chrome as well as Google's growing portfolio of web based apps (GMail, Google Docs, Desktop, Calendar, Reader, Photos, Video, YouTube, Blogger), Chrome is one step away from becoming the first web based Google operating System. Exciting.